Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
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| And I wanted to make a commitment to that myself because I think the state of the public markets is strategically well positioned as we believe we are |
| I think we have a stronger balance sheet than most all of our competitors |
| In addition to our financial highlights, we're encouraged by the progress we're making in technology and platform development, and we're investing strategically to ensure that we can meet the needs of the expanding universe of private market participants as the market rebounds |
| These are encouraging signs that investment in the private market is returning amid the great reset, the effects of which we believe are still ongoing |
| With that, we saw improved results in the third quarter over that of Q1 and Q2 |
| And we've really got a team of people there that are staffed up in the last six months that have really proven our ability to attain and retain really great talent in the region |
| I think we've reached the point now where we're really excited about where we take and start to cross-sell custody going forward |
| We believe this was due to the modestly improving market conditions that again benefited our markets business |
| Another encouraging indicator was the rise in transaction volume, which increased 53% to $234 million compared to Q2 |
| As we look forward to the continuing market recovery, we remain optimistic about the future of the business and about our privileged position as a market leader to accelerate this asset class towards its inevitable tipping point |
| Meanwhile, the Forge Private Market Index trended positive for the first three-month period since the downturn, posting a 1.1% performance gain in Q3 and outperforming both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ |
| Custody administration fees for the seventh straight quarter continued to rise to $11.3 million in Q3, benefiting again from the higher interest rate environment |
| Though the IPO window remains mostly closed, we're seeing continued traction in markets activity and a narrower bid-ask spread than we have seen since the start of the downturn |
| I'd say that we believe that the European market possesses a great deal of opportunity for us |
| Our custodial business continues to provide stability and balance to our revenue streams |
| In the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA loss improved to $10.4 million compared to a loss of $11.8 million last quarter, driven by improved revenues and tight cost controls |
| And I think that when you think about just the team we have that we put out in the playing field, and that's our private market specialist team, our operations team, the legal and compliance types to support them, the technology that we've built, the data product, the custody solutions, the lending product, I mean I know I'm -- it sounds like an advertisement, but I think when you think about us versus our competitors, I think we feel really good about where we're situated |
| And I think this is a testament to as they get enhanced information that helps give them the data that allow them to transact with more confidence, it's a win-win all around |
| It's just very, very excited about the opportunity in Europe, Owen, I mean, very much kind of being first movers on the continent, right, so -- and in the UK |
| So I think the positive remark here could be that in Q3, we're starting to see the return of the institutional buyer, right? And that's really important |
| So we think that we are seeing improvement, and we're hoping it continues to improve |
| And you guys follow this stuff very closely, but obviously, the public markets performed very strongly in the first half |
| So obviously, 15% is still a little bit higher than we'd like to see, but obviously, significant improvements from where we saw the bid-ask spreads in 2022 |
| But I think the -- as Kelly mentioned, the relative stabilization of valuation, I think the bid-ask spread headed in the right direction, the increase in buy-side sentiment in terms of the IOIs that we're seeing, I think these are all positive indicators that give us some level of encouragement |
| And it's a little bit too early in the quarter, given when the war broke out, whether or not we're going to see any more volatility that would change the way we feel about the ongoing positive trends that we now feel pretty good about |
| So we previously announced that we do have our [indiscernible] application in, and we've been building the European team and are optimistic about our ability to begin trading in 2024 |
| Placement fee revenue less transaction-based expenses for Forge in Q3 improved, up 27% to $7.1 million compared to Q2 |
| So we are seeing some encouraging signs |
| EBITDA improved even as we continued to invest strategically as early movers in the European private market |
| Certainly, up until now, at least in the last year, we've been the beneficiary of the rate environment |
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| The bid-ask spread narrowed meaningfully in the quarter to a low of 12% in August and ending the quarter at 15%, its lowest level in six quarters |
| And I would say the last 21 months have been difficult for everyone, but probably much more difficult for our competitors than for Forge |
| The net take rate declined from 3.7% last quarter |
| While we don't provide guidance, we were comfortable making comments about kind of the coming quarter, right? And as you recall, the third quarter historically has been a slow quarter for us when you look at patterns throughout a year |
| Third quarter net loss decreased to $19 million compared to $25.1 million last quarter |
| Now obviously, the last couple quarters, the last 1.5 years has been tough |
| But given what we've seen this year, a recovery may not be up and to the right every quarter and may not be linear |
| We believe the primary driver of these declines is cash sorting and search for return and yield |
| Is that coming from Forge customers on to the Forge platform? Or is that kind of external just to kind of growth in some of your partners that are using Forge for custody? And then, Mark, you mentioned potentially some fee pressure because of the cash sorting, which makes sense because we just have to model through the decline in cash balances from 2Q to 3Q |
| And in Q3, they constituted 36% of our total volume in the quarter, right? And that's how you saw the net take rate decline |
| On the competitive environment question, maybe to turn that question around a little bit, I mean not surprisingly, some of your competitors are probably struggling a little bit more than you are |
| The spread has been trending downward since it peaked at 30% in April, as valuations have shown some signs of leveling off compared to the steep declines since early 2022 |
| In Q3, we witnessed the continued cautious return of investors to the private market, which drove higher volumes and revenue in our markets business compared to both Q1 and Q2 |
| Q3 marked a reversal in several of the trends that have weighed on the private market since the beginning of 2022 |
| But if you think about it, through the lens of somebody who is a competitor that doesn't have a balance sheet and is struggling through periods of difficulty in terms of volume, I think a lot of the competition out there is nervous and is being extremely conservative in terms of their investments in staffing or anything that burns cash |
| We never expected that we would get this kind of sequential growth from the custody business that we've gotten |
| We talked about kind of cautious improvement quarter-over-quarter |
| Are you seeing any competitive pressures on take rates, just given that transaction volumes remain below historical levels? I know you mentioned the block trade sort of brought the rate down, but just curious what your read is on the competitive environment |
| And if anything, the fact that you saw a 3.7% take rate back in quarter two is an indication that if anybody is going to be applying rate pressure to the market, it's probably us |
| We are not seeing rate pressure |
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